A team of experts is expected in Guyana soon to commence building two dust collecting units at the Bosai Minerals Group Guyana Incorporated (BMGGI), which are expected to be operational by February 2012.
During a tour of the facility last Friday, Senior Personnel Officer Vance Reid pleaded for the continued patience of Lindeners who have been very tolerant over the years. “We will try our best to give some information as to where we are via the media. The dust collection system will be in place, this is not an idle promise, it is a fact,” Reid said.
According to Reid, a team of 17 engineers and technical personnel from China will arrive in Guyana on September 12 to commence the installation of the two dust collection systems in Kiln 14 and Kiln 13.
Interim Management Committee Chairman Orin Gordon who was also on the tour, said the company has been constantly keeping the council informed and he has made several visits to the site to check on the progress.
The issue of having the dust emission arrested has a long history. Cambior took over the bauxite operations in Linden in 2005 and had tabled plans to have two dust collecting units installed by 2007. However, the company encountered a drastic decline in bauxite markets. “The cost to do that project was considerately high in comparison to the sale of bauxite at the time,” a source who was integrally involved in the process said. Cambior did however, do the engineering for the project.
The bauxite operations at Linden were taken over by Bosai in April 2007 and this company abandoned the engineering work which was done by Cambior and did its own, utilizing its own expertise. Several deadlines were set for the commencement and completion of the dust collection units, the first being in 2009. Bosai was having the design and construction work done overseas and the installation was estimated to be completed in one year but this took much longer than estimated.
A press release from Bosai yesterday in response to an article which appeared in the Kaieteur News, Saturday August 27, 2011, captioned, ‘Bauxite Plant Dust Pollution affecting Lindeners’, said that once the kilns are producing, bauxite dust would be expelled from the stacks in the bauxite plant.
“The EPA is also closely monitoring the project and is frequently updated on the progress by the BMGGI Environmental Department. Bosai also has a television programme… to inform the general populace of each phase of the construction of the dust collector system. In addition, quarterly medical outreach programmes are held at different health centres in Linden and are well attended by the residents,” the release said.
Bosai said it remained a committed corporate citizen. “Although we understand the frustration of the Lindeners with the dust situation for over four decades, we ask for their patience since the promise of the installation of the dust collector system would materialize in the very near future,” it stated.
The company had attempted to bring some relief to the community by providing air conditioning and other appliances to the New Silvercity Secondary School which in most instances feels the brunt of the effect of the dust.
